Chapter 4 Kalani

“Guess what Kayla? I heard that Frank Palicky might have a crush on you.”

Kalani blushed. “Shut up, no he doesn’t.”

“Yes, he does. I heard him talking to his friends.” Kalani’s best friend, Heather said. “They were having a bunch of gross guy-talk, but anyway, Frank said he would love to see you naked.”

“That doesn’t mean he has a crush on me.” The girls shared adjacent lockers. Kalani emptied two books and grabbed her chemistry book for next period. “It just means he’s a stupid jock like any other stupid jock.”

“A jock you’d like to sleep with.”

Kalani sighed. “No I wouldn’t.”

“Oh come on, I saw how you got red when I mentioned Frank liked you. Admit it, you like him.”

“He’s okay to look at, but I would never want to hook up with him.” Kalani slammed her locker closed a bit too hard. The metal door bent inwards and there were four little divots where her fingers just were. “Oops...cheap ass locker.”

“Jeez, angry much?”

“I’m not. It’s just, this dumb locker. Come on, let’s get to class.”

---

In 52 minutes, chemistry was done and the girls were heading over to the gym for general sports. Kalani couldn’t recall what she did or what was taught in chemistry since her mind was elsewhere.

“You’re coming over tonight, right?” Heather asked.

“Huh?” Kalani was sitting in the locker room bench, tying up the knots on her sneaker. “Oh, yea, sure. What movie you got?”

“None, let’s just see what’s on Netflix.”

Another girl nearby snickered and made a comment that the girls, who seemed to be paired up all the time, were going to ‘Netflix and Chill.’

“Fuck off Brianna.” Heather stood up. Brianna shrugged and walked off. “Why does everyone think we are together like that?”

“Probably because we always hang out together.” Kalani finished dressing in her gym gear, and then methodically closed her locker. “I don’t care what they think.”

“We’re just friends. Everyone has friends. Why do they think we’re fucking? Jeez.”

“Don’t let them get to you.”

“We need boyfriends. Then this teasing would stop.”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t you want a boyfriend?”

“Well, yea, but I’m no rush. Besides, the boys at this school suck. I don’t think I’ll be dating anytime soon.”

“I’m suggesting boyfriends. Not your future husband. Lower your standards girl.”

---

General Sports meant the students were allowed to do whatever they want, so long as it was physical. Kalani and Heather often walked around the track for the hour and called it good. Gym was their last period, so they took it easy as it was the end of their school day.

“I bet I can sneak us some of my mom’s wine. Wanna try it tonight?”

“Sure. As long as it’s white wine. The red stuff is gross.”

“I’m sure she has some. She went to Costco and bought like a case of it. I don’t think she’ll notice if one goes missing.”

“What are we watching?”

“I don’t know, what do you wanna watch?”

“I’m in the mood for some destruction. Cloverfield or Pacific Rim, something like that.”

“Nerd.”

A football was thrown from the center football field and landed on the track that the girls were on. A boy, that Kalani and Heather would later admit was really cute, ran up from the grass field and shouted towards the girls. “Hey, little help?”

Kalani smiled and hid her face by looking away. She tried to be subtle about it, but failed miserably. Even someone who didn’t know Kalani well, would know she was smitten to the sweaty, athletic boy.

Heather snickered and her friend’s shyness. She elbowed her and said, “get the ball and give it to him.” Hoping her friend would strike a conversation with someone from the opposite sex.

“Oh, right, okay.” Kalani took a step and picked up the ball from the ground. She didn’t really want to talk to the boy, no matter how attractive she found him. So she opted to tossing the ball towards him. Kalani didn’t know how to throw a football properly and went for an underhand toss, as if she were pitching a softball. Her movement was dainty and graceful, yet, when the football left her hand, it went shooting out into the air like a bullet. The football had a perfect spiral going and it soared at a perfect 45-degree angle.

Anticipating she overthrew the ball, Kalani said, “oops, sorry.” And then she went on walking with her friend as if nothing happened. The cute boy and Heather stood in awe, as they watched the football fly towards the other end of the field. When it was halfway across the football field, the other players noticed the airborne ball and naturally assumed the cute boy threw the ball. They went running after it, but it was flying far and quickly away from them. The football landed at the opposing goal line. Kalani had tossed the ball some 120 yards - underhand.

“What the fuck, Kayla?” Heather asked.

“What?” Kalani asked. She looked at the ball that was being picked up by the other players, way down the field, and then back to Heather. “What’s wrong?”

“How the hell did you throw the ball so far? You just threw it down an entire football field!”

“Is that good?”

The cute boy ran up to the girls and said, “that’s amazing. I don’t think anyone could throw that far.”

Kalani blushed and looked away.

“I’ve seen you around. I’m sorry but I can’t remember your name. Kay--something right?”

“It’s Kalani.” Heather answered, noticing her friend was too timid to answer. She wanted to be Kalani’s wingman and help her out. “But everyone calls her Kayla.”

“Those are pretty names.” The boy was a mix of races. African American and possible Latino. He was average height, and had a trim, athletic built. “Is that Hawaiian or something?”

“Kayla is half-Hawaiian and half-Japanese.” Heather answered again.

Though the conversation seemed to be between Heather and the boy. He kept looking straight at Kalani. The shy girl was looking up at him using her peripherals. Her dark hair covered some of her face.

The boy went on, speaking towards Kalani and said, “My name is--”

“Darren.” Kalani finished for him. Speaking barely above a whisper. “We shared a couple of classes last year.”

“Well, now I feel bad for not remembering you Kayla.” Darren said.

Kalani smiled wide, revealing her brilliantly white teeth.

“She’s super shy.” Heather said, trying to save her friend. “But once you open her up, she won’t stop talking.”

“It’s all good.” Some of the players on the field started calling for Darren. “Shoot, I got to get back. We’ll catch up later, is that cool? You gotta tell me how you threw that ball so far.” He jogged back to the field and looked over his shoulder to take one last look of the cute, shy girl. The other players on the field started chastising him for talking to the chicks and started making lewd comments as do teenage boys do.

“I swear,” Heather started, “You’re going to get a boyfriend without trying. Quit being so hot.”

“What do you mean?” The trance Kalani was under, was now gone. “He just wants to know how to throw a ball like me.”

“...and get in your pants.”

“Is that all you think about?”

“Yes.”

---

School was over and the girls were headed towards Heather’s house. A shortcut from the school to the house, took the girls on a trail through the forest. The trail ended at a seldom used road, and from there it was another ten-minute walk to the house.

“Maybe, we should watch a dirty movie.” Heather suggested. “We’ll drink wine and watch porn.”

“Do you think that’s something 17-year-olds should be doing?”

Heather laughed. “Who’s gonna stop us? We’ll be in the basement and my parents will watching TV in their bedroom like they usually do. They won’t know what we are doing.”

“I don’t want to watch porn.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I’m not thinking about sex every two minutes like you.”

“Really? I thought that was normal.”

“How come you want to watch porn together? Don’t people do that in private?”

“Fine. We’ll watch a dumb monster movie.” Heather groaned.

---

The girls exited the forest and were back on the road. They were walking on the sidewalk and continued their mindless chit-chat as a silver ‘92 Honda Civic drove by.

“I think we’re going to get stuck behind the train again.” Kalani said. A freight train typically ran at that time after school. It cut through the forest, over the road, and continued back into the forest on the other side. It was one of those long freights that moved slow and hauled an impressive number of cars. It usually meant that the girls had to wait another 2-5 minutes as the train chugged over the road.

“I hate trains.” Heather said.

“No you don’t.”

“Maybe not. But I hate that train.”

The girls could hear the air horn going off in the distant.

“And there it is.” Kalani said.

“Maybe if we run, we could get on the other side of the track.”

“No way, it’s not worth it.”

“Come on, don’t be chicken.”

“Wait, do you hear that?” Kalani stopped walking.

“Hear what?”

“Shh.” Kalani listened and could hear a woman screaming.

“I hear it now,” Heather said. “Sounds like someone is in trouble.”

Kalani took off running. Her backpack thumbing and jumping off her back. Up ahead she could see the source of the scream. It was an old Honda stuck on the railroad tracks.

The road was old and deteriorated. There was a hump that went over the railroad tracks, created from years of neglect and heavy vehicles. The road was full of potholes and other unnatural waves on it.

As Kalani got closer to the vehicle she noticed the engine was off. A woman had one of the rear passenger doors open and was struggling with something inside. She was panicked and shouting obscenities. Another blast from the air horn on the train could be heard. It was getting a lot closer.

“Help me!” The woman pulled herself out of the car, looking around and then focusing on Kalani. “My baby’s stuck.” She managed to scream.

Heather ran past Kalani and told the panicked woman she could help. The woman was on one side of the car, and Heather on the other side. They both had their butts sticking out of the car as they struggled to undo the straps on the toddler. It was either a fault on the car-seat straps, or the panic from the women, but they couldn’t manage to unbuckle the toddler.

Kalani looked back on the track and could now see the train barreling down on them. It was moving faster than usual.

She needed to act.

Kalani dropped her backpack and moved to the front of the vehicle. Not only was the engine stalled, but it looked like the front wheels were wedged between the rails and road. There was another blast of the air horn. The engineer probably saw the stalled vehicle and proceeded to brake the train. But a train of that weight would probably take a couple of miles to stop. He blasted the air horn again.

Kalani placed her hands on the hood of the car and started pushing. The metal gave way to Kalani’s hand as if it were made of butter. As she pushed down on the car, the pressure on the front tires became so great, that they popped one after another.

“Shoot.” Kalani shouted. She looked down at the train and estimated she only had ten seconds left.

The woman and Heather, still halfway inside the vehicle, looked out through the front windshield in shock. “What the hell was Kayla doing?” Heather asked aloud.

Kalani squatted and thrusted her arms as far under the car as she could, like a forklift. She then stood up on her squat--lifting the Honda Civic up with her. Kalani walked forward, not necessarily struggling with the weight of the vehicle, but with awkwardness of carrying something so large. Her feet sunk deep into her foam flip-flops because of the added weight of a sedan.

After clearing the track, Kalani set the vehicle down. In that instance, the train came thundering down the tracks right behind the girl. The woman and Heather stared at Kalani in disbelief.

“I’m sorry,” Kalani said. “I kinda dented your car.”

The woman came out and gave Kalani a bear-hug. “Ohmygod, thankyou, thankyou, yousavedmy baby!” She said without taking a breath.

---

The girls reached Heather’s basement at last. Heather had remained silent for most of the walk and kept stealing suspicious glances at her friend. But once they were in the basement, she started talking.

“Okay, what the hell is going on with you?”

“Whatcha mean?”

“Cut the crap Kayla. How come you’re so strong all of sudden.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“The football? The car just now?” Heather thought for a second. “Your locker today. Wait, you know what I’m talking about. What’s going on with you?”

“I guess I’m getting a little stronger.”

“You’re a bad lier Kayla. I know you’re lying to me. What’s up? Spill it.”

“Okay, okay.” Kalani sat on the couch and kicked off her flip-flops. “I’ve noticed it for about a week now. I can do stuff now...stuff that shouldn’t be possible.”

“Your super strength. Yea, that shouldn’t be possible.” Heather stood over her friend and had her arms crossed. “Wait, is there more?”

Kalani seemed to be battling some thoughts within her.

“There is more.” Heather realized. “Are you like a superhero now? You got super strength and what else?”

“I don’t think I’m a superhero. Aside from the super strength. I mean, can growing be considered a superpower?”

Heather dropped her arms. “Shut up! You can grow yourself? What are we talking? Like how much?”

“I haven’t really tested it. It scared me the first time.”

“Can you grow now?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why the hell not?”

“I can’t make clothes grow.”

“So?” Heather then thought about it and said, “what, you’re afraid to be naked in front of me?”

“Heather please. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t think I should’ve told you.” Kalani lowered her head.

“We are best friends, you should’ve told me sooner.” Heather sat next to her disheartened friend. “Why are you so worked up? This is so cool.”

“No it’s not. I’m just a weirdo that is super strong and can grow myself.”

“That is not weird.” Heather embraced her friend. “That is super cool. Calm down, I won’t tell anyone. But you gotta let me see it.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Well, just grow a tiny bit so that I can see it. You don’t have to grow bigger than your clothes.”

Kalani thought about this. “Okay. Just a little.” Kalani stood up and faced her friend. She let out a breath and concentrated.

Heather could smell ozone in the air. Like the smell during a thunderstorm. Looking intently at her friend, she saw her rise about a little. Her leggings grew tighter and her shirt looked more snug. Heather’s mouth dropped open. It was real.

Heather said, “oh my god.” She stood up next to her friend.

Kalani was 5’2” and Heather was 5’6”. Now, after her growth spurt, Kalani was 5’3”.

“Tell me, that’s not all.” Heather exclaimed. “You can grow bigger than that, right?”

“The first day I found out about this, I grew up like a foot taller. I got scared because I didn’t know I did it. It took me like an hour to figure out how to shrink myself back to normal.”

“What?” Heather almost shouted. Not wanting to draw attention from her parents, she lowered her volume. “When did you do that?”

“Last Saturday morning. I was in my room and just finished taking a shower. I accidently stepped on my brother’s Hot Wheel toy cars and got mad. I looked down at my foot and looked at the tiny car next to my toe. I don’t know why, but I started wondering what if that was a real car. Like, what would that feel like? To be so big, that I could crush a car under my big toe. That’s when it happened.”

Heather laughed.

“Why are you laughing at me? I’m never telling you a secret again.” Kalani turned her back to her friend.

“No, it’s not that. I just figured out why you wanted to watch a giant monster movie.” Heather came down from her laughter and had a realization. “Holy shit Kayla! Could you grow that big? Like Godzilla?”

“I only grew a foot. And I did that without realizing it. I haven’t tried growing again, because I’m afraid I’ll get stuck like that.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I don’t know. Maybe? I grew without thinking the first time. I’m sure if I put my mind to it, I could grow into a giant.”

“You’re so fucking lucky! Why can’t I have your powers? I would at least use them and not be chicken like you.” Heather pouted. “Well, at least my best friend is a superhero. I can just live through you. Wait, can you grow other people? Can you grow me?”

“I don’t know.” Kalani was frustrated. “What part, ‘this is new to me’ don’t you understand?”

“Well, try!”

“Okay, stand still.”

Kalani didn’t know where to start. Her friend propped up excitingly and brushed her long hair back with her fingers. She looked too excited. Her smile was beaming as she stood at attention.

"Wait,” Heather interrupted. “Should I get naked?”

“What? No. I don’t if this is even going to work. And if it does, I’m not going to grow you that big.”

“Heck naw, I’m not a chicken grow me until I can reach the ceiling.”

“Heather, please.”

“What?”

“Just shut up. I’ll grow you a little--that’s if I can. If it works...if...then I’ll think about growing you bigger. But just let me see if this works.”

Heather nodded and waited.

Kalani let out a breath. When she wanted herself to grow, she went back to that original thought of having a toy car by her foot. She thought about it. How big it made her feel. To only be bigger. But instead of placing the mental image of her foot by the car, she thought about Heather. She thought about how Heather would seem if she were big. An image came to mind. She imagined her clothes tightening and her body expanding. But not too much. Just a little. Just a little test. Grow.

Ozone.

Electricity flowed in the basement air. Not a lot. Just a small faint hint of it. Kalani pushed that power towards Heather in a controlled burst--not burst, more like a waft.

Heather grew.

“It worked.” Kalani said, not believing herself. “I don’t believe it.”

“Hell yea!” Heather was now 5’7”. They were back to being their normal height difference of four inches. Heather gasped. “You know what this means?” She started stripping.

“Hey, stop. I don’t want to see you naked.”

“Why not, never seen a girl naked before?”

“I don’t want to see you naked.” Kalani felt like she was begging with a child. Trying to make them understand what they were doing was a bad idea.

“Fine.” Heather turned around and grabbed one of the seat cushions from the couch. As she stripped, she kept the cushion in front of her, so that Kalani couldn’t see her nudity.

Kalani still turned around so that her back was to her friend. She tried to convince herself that this wasn’t a bad idea, but something in the back of her mind kept nagging at her.

“Okay, go for it.”

Kalani turned around and could see her friend bare legs and feet. Heather only wore a smile and the sofa cushion that covered her breast and crotch.

“How...how much should I grow you?” Kalani asked.

Heather spouted out, “twice what I am now. Like 10 or 12 feet.”

“Your head will hit the ceiling.”

“I’ll sit down.” And so she did, keeping herself hidden by the cushion. “Go for it, Kayla!”

Kalani went through the motions again. Double Heather’s height? That was going to take a little bit more magic than what she’s been playing with, but she was confident she could do it. Kalani felt a surge of electricity run through her body as she let herself picture her friend bigger. She pulled electricity from the electronics around her and the currents running through the house wiring. She pushed the energy at her eager friend.

Heather felt herself tingle. The outermost parts of her skin felt hot. Her hairs and peach-fuzz around her forearm stood straight up. Then she felt slight nauseum as the basement around her started to shrink. Kalani pulled back on the reins as the top of Heather’s head reached the ceiling.

“Oh no.” Kalani exclaimed. The ceiling had to be something like 8-feet from the ground. Heather was still seated on her bum. That meant, “I made you too big.”

“It’s perfect!” Heather spread her legs and place the small rectangular cushion in front of her crotch. She didn’t attempt to hide her breast. There was simply too much to cover. “Kayla, you did it!” Heather lowered her voice to a whisper when she noticed how loud she was. “Was it hard to make me this big?”

“Not at all. I think I’m getting better at it because I’m figuring it out.” Kalani’s eyes followed Heather’s 9-foot long legs which she was standing between. Her feet were so massive, she could sorta smell the vinegary smell they gave off. It assaulted Kalani’s nose at first, but then she started to like it.

“I see you checking me out.” Heather poked Kalani’s thigh with her big toe. “Maybe the rumors are true. Are you checking me out Kayla? I don’t blame you, how could anyone resist me?”

“Gross, I’m making you small again before your parents hear you.”

“No, no. I’ll be good.”

“Heather, you can’t stay like this, I need to make you normal again.”

“But I just grew.” She whined. “Let me be this size a little longer. Let me hold you.”

“Heather, you’re naked.”

“So what?” Heather could see her smaller friend scowl and shake her head slowly. “Okay, okay, how about you grab my bed sheet from upstairs. I’ll wrap myself so that you can’t see my hot tits.”

“Fine. But I’m only doing this so that you can get this out of your system. I’m not growing you again.” She stepped over her friend’s leg.

“Yea, yea.” Heather tapped her friend’s butt as she walked towards the stairs.

---

Heather wrapped a white bedsheet around her torso and remained seated on the floor next to the couch. Kalani took over the remote and put on Cloverfield.

“Can you imagine me being that big?” Heather quietly asked.

“Not going to happen.” Kalani said.

“I didn’t say make me that big. I just said, ‘could you imagine’ me as tall as a skyscraper.”

“Why would you want that? You’d hurt people and the military would shoot you down.”

“I don’t care about hurting people. That’s part of the fun. To squish and eat them and knock over their puny buildings.” Heather tapped her foot on the carpeted floor to animate what she was saying. Kalani took notice. “And, I would take care of the military, don’t you worry about that.”

Kalani had her legs bent, so that her whole body was on the couch. Her bum was facing her 17-foot tall friend. As Heather fantasized out loud, Kalani was absentmindedly playing with her womanhood. She ran her middle finger up and down her cameltoe as she watched the epic fight scene in the movie. She imagined her friend Heather in place of the monster, fighting the giant robot.

Heather noticed her friend.

With a smile, Heather said “I wouldn’t be tiny like those Kaiju, though. I want to be big enough to step on those things, completely under one foot, kapow!” Heather slammed her barefoot down again. This time it rattled the basement.

Kalani looked up at her friend, part surprised, part aroused. She let out an involuntary moan.

“You’re into this giant stuff, aren’t you?” Heather teased.

Kalani hesitated. “No.” She crossed her arms and sunk in her couch.

“You know what we should do?” Heather leaned over close to her friend sulking on the couch. “We should go to the woods tonight. By the hidden pond in the clearing. No one goes out there. You can grow me like the 50-foot woman.”

“What if someone sees?”

“No one will! Those trees are tall.”

“I don’t want to go into the forest at night. That’s just asking for trouble.”

“What are you afraid?” Heather grinned.

“Two girls in the woods at night? What if a gang jumps us?”

“Ugh, you’ll punch them with your super strength, duh. You’re probably strong enough to break bones. Or, if you don’t want to get dirty, you can grow me really big, and I’ll stomp on anyone that tries to mess with us. Oh, crap, yea, let’s do that! I want to squish someone!”

Kalani looked down at her friend’s feet and moaned again. She caught herself and tried to pass it off as a cough.

“Ooo, someone wants to see me squish someone.” Heather poked her friend on the side.

“Stop, okay!” Kalani jumped to her feet. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you about this. I will never grow you that tall. You just want to hurt people like a psychopath.” Kalani slipped on her flip-flops, grabbed her backpack, and headed for the stairs.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Kayla, I was just teasing. Hey, come back.” Heather moved a hand to block Kalani from reaching the stairs. But Kalani just grabbed hold of the giant hand and shoved it away with ease. “Oh, right, you’re super strong. Wait, Kayla, you can’t just leave me like this. Make me normal.”

“Why should I? I thought you enjoy being a giant.”

“Just as much as you enjoy me being one.”

“What, I…” She blushed.

“I was just teasing about being cruel. You know I would never kill anyone.”

“Even if people were like the size of ants to you?”

Heather shrugged. “When’s the last time you looked on the ground to avoid stepping on an ant?”

“Oh my god, you would…” Kalani said in disgust.

“Why are we talking about this? It’s not like you’re planning on making me super huge.”

Kalani thought about something and moved her head away in shame.

“Holy shit.” Heather’s voice dropped. “Kayla...I didn’t know you were...come back here. Let’s talk about it. I promise I won’t tease. But you gotta tell me what’s in your mind instead of getting all pissy with me.”

Kalani chewed the inside of her cheek as she straightened out her thoughts. “You promise you won’t laugh?”

“I promise.”

“Promise you won’t say cruel, psycho stuff?”

“I promise.”

Heather let out a breath through her nose. “I know friends tease. That’s fine. But do you promise not to tease me about this...about growing and giants and stuff?”

“Kayla, I didn’t know this was a touchy subject. I’m glad you’re telling me about it now. Yes, I promise not to tease about this stuff. But can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“I can still tease about other stuff, right? Like your clothes? Why, girl, are you wearing those cheap Walmart flipflops with those leggings? You need to learn how to style properly.”

Kalani looked at her mini-giant friend with heavy eyes and a look that said are you fucking kidding me?

“Woof, that feels good to get out in the open. Okay, sit down here and tell me what’s on your mind.”

===

Unbeknownst to Kalani, her magical abilities didn’t go unnoticed. The Collective, rogue Pirends, and the government now knew that a teen girl. Her powers...they were strong. The last time anyone sensed such great power was 15 years ago with a girl name Luna Lansbury.